Objections to Hell #3

Before we read the third objection to hell, ask yourself the following question, “Who do I believe, God or man?” The reason why some objections to hell get off the ground and begin flying is because Christian’s allow the runway for take off to exist. The Bible tells us that God is true, even if every man is proven a liar. If the whole human race says one thing and God says another, who do you believe? God is all wise, all knowing, all seeing! He knows with perfect knowledge the effects that sin has brought upon the human heart. Sin has warped our thinking, it has distorted our judgments. Even our judgments of how we view ourselves! This is why we MUST go to God for our answers, even if God’s answers contradict the whole world of unbelief!

Third Objection. ‘It is unfair to be eternally damned for making a wrong choice, when there are millions of choices. If the stake are so high, then God should make things way more clear!’

If you remember, in the parable that Jesus is telling, He has the rich man in hell asking if God would raise Lazarus from the grave and go warn the rich man’s five brothers about the place of wrath and torment. God tells the rich man that his brothers have God’s word to warn them about hell, and if they won’t listen to God’s word then they won’t listen even if they see someone raise from the grave!

Jesus has the rich man in the parable insinuating “if” things would have been more clear…if he would have had more information…if he would have seen some miraculous event…THEN…he would have never gone to hell!

Has God been unclear? God tells us “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because although they knew God they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

God tells us that He has clearly shown Himself in the created order. God has clearly revealed Himself through the things He has made.

His finger prints are on everything!

So why do people then reject Jesus and reject the Gospel? The answer is frightening!

Jesus gives us this answer in the Gospel of John, in the most popular Scripture passage in our land.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish [go to hell] but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved! [John 3:16-17]

What an amazing, wonderful truth! God came into the world to save sinners from eternal destruction! So then, why aren’t some saved? Is it because God hasn’t shown Himself in a clear enough way? The passage continues on, and reveals to us the reason why some people don’t come to Jesus.

“He who believes in Jesus is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” [vs. 18]

Now, read the following verse very carefully.

“And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” [John 3:19]

Light is very clear! It shines clearly into the dark! Jesus is telling us the reason why some people don’t find God is because they don’t want to. They love their sin and refuse to give it up!

These people say that they are open to the truth and are willing to follow the evidence wherever it leads, but in reality they are running as fast as they can from the truth.

In history, Jesus really did raise a man named Lazarus from the dead! Did this amazing feat cause the religious leaders of Jesus day to stop fighting against Him, and begin to follow Jesus? No! Instead they began to plot in how they could kill Lazarus, because his very presence was causing a lot of people to follow Jesus. The religious leaders wanted to get rid of the evidence so that they could continue believing the lie!

And what happened when Jesus Himself rose from the grave on the third day? Did His enemies change their minds? Praise God, some did! But others paid off the guards who witnessed the resurrection! They gave the guards large sums of money to lie about what they saw! In other words, they got rid of the evidence!

In this parable [Luke 16:19-31] Jesus tells us that God has clearly revealed Himself and His salvation in the Scriptures of the Old Testament and New…if a person refuses to bow the knee to Jesus because of God’s Word, then they won’t do so even if they see some miraculous event!

The Bible shows us that God is abundant in loving kindness and mercy. For many He is not only the God of second chances…but of 100’s of chances! But may we not be mistaken! God owes no one second or third chances! God owes no one mercy!

There are times when men and women continue to run away from God, and run into their sin and lies, and God says to them, “if that is where you want to go, then so be it.”

What a terrifying day that would be!